Local college costs are up, except for two schools

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May 19, 2013 at 6:00 AMMay 20, 2013 at 9:44 AM

By Shaun Sutner TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Worcester Polytechnic Institute's dramatic growth has been on public display over the past decade, with an urban campus that has sprouted a life sciences park, a sparkling new athletic center and a sprawling parking garage topped with playing fields.

In the past 25 years, WPI has also seen a 46 percent surge in enrollment — which puts it roughly in the middle of Central Massachusetts schools in terms of enrollment growth during the period.

But along with more students, WPI has added administrators at an unusually high rate that is the second highest of 116 Massachusetts colleges and universities whose federally collected hiring and enrollment data were examined by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting.

Most schools in the region saw their administrations grow, though two of them, the College of the Holy Cross and Clark University, shrunk the number of their administrators.

While WPI officials take issue with the methodology used by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics, those statistics show that the number of administrators at WPI grew by 647 percent between 1987-88 and 2011-12, from 32 to 237.

Tracy Hassett, vice president for human resources, says she believes a change in the definition of university administrator in the mid-2000s accounts for most of the increase. She maintained that an accurate reflection of the school's expansion is the total number of employees that were added, not just those defined as administrators.

Ms. Hassett said the percentage of employees added is 56 percent, which roughly parallels the growth of the student body.

“The institution has grown not only in terms of students. It has also grown in faculty and staff,” Ms. Hassett said. “There's so much focus on the cost of higher education that we take every penny we spend very seriously, and we're a very data driven school. The numbers need to be looked at as a whole, not just one piece.”

While the expansion of WPI's administration, as analyzed by the investigative reporting center, was the biggest in percentage terms among Central Massachusetts schools, others also registered notable increases.

Assumption College's administrative ranks last year numbered 38, as opposed to 10 in the late 1980s — a 290 percent jump — while enrollment grew 11 percent. Worcester State University's administration swelled by 94 percent as the number of students grew by 5 percent. At Fitchburg State, the administrative growth was 75 percent, while enrollment went up 6 percent.

At Clark University, administrators have made a conscious decision to limit administrative overhead, said James E. Collins, executive vice president for administration and finance.

“It is certainly a major strategic focus at Clark that we remain efficient,” Mr. Collins said. “Certainly one measure of efficiency is educating more students at lower administrative cost.”

However, Mr. Collins noted that Clark's measure of efficiency is not numbers of administrators versus enrollment, but the cost of running the administration and physical plant as a percentage of operating budget.

By that metric, Clark officials believe they have been successful. Thirty years ago, the school spent 22 percent of its budget on administration and buildings. Today, that number is 15 percent, Mr. Collins said.

At the College of the Holy Cross, even though the number of administrators has shrunk by 25 percent since the late 1980s, according to the federal data, officials echoed the sentiments of those at some schools where those numbers rose.

“The past 25 years have also brought major change overall in higher education today — not only at Holy Cross but at colleges and universities across the country,” said spokeswoman Ellen Ryder. “A successful, productive student experience on most college campuses today requires many more points of contact with mentors and advisers outside the classroom.”

“The reality is that job definitions and federal reporting requirements have changed over time and have resulted in some reclassifications,” she continued. “The essential point for prospective students and their families to keep in mind during the college search is how opportunities — both in and out of classroom — will support your specific educational and life goals.”

Similarly, Worcester State administrators say that major changes on its campus, primarily involving dramatic growth in residence halls, technology capabilities and security, are behind the need for more administrators.

Carl A. Herrin, assistant to WSU president Barry Maloney, noted that with the expected opening of new dorms in 2014, 40 percent of the student body will live on campus; by comparison, 20 years ago Worcester State was almost exclusively a commuter school.

“The growth in administration is consistent with our sense of ourselves over that 25-year period ... and our institution's efforts to address the need for growth in academic offerings and student life,” Mr. Herrin said. “We had a comparable growth in our faculty ranks, and residential growth.”

At Fitchburg State, spokesman Matthew Bruun said the school's primary spending commitment is to instruction, and pointed to research recently prepared for an accreditation review that shows instruction at 25.7 percent of the budget, the largest single area of spending.

“Fitchburg State University does all it can to keep administrative costs under control. Our primary mission is serving students and we invest our resources with that in mind,” Mr. Bruun said. “The functions and operations of the university have evolved over the past 25 years ... and that comes with investments in personnel.”

Contact Shaun Sutner at ssutner@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @ssutner.